SHOWCASE AT THE PLAYHOUSE

QUICKLINKS

VIFF AT THE VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE

Thanks to the City of Vancouver for making it possible for us to utilize this spacious and gracious 668-seat theatre in our downtown core for this year’s VIFF. We’ve installed a screen and the latest in digital cinema technology to help this Vancouver treasure truly be “the city’s prime venue for dance, chamber music, film events, and theatrical productions.”

As VIFF’s second largest venue (after The Centre for The Performing Arts) we’ve been careful to program films at the Playhouse that have the potential to be among the most popular and best attended. Here is a selection of what’s on offer.

Heroes rarely fall from grace with the velocity of Lance Armstrong. Aiming to capture the cancer survivor’s bid for an eighth Tour de France title, Alex Gibney (Oscar winner for Taxi to the Dark Side) found himself documenting one of sports’ most infamous doping scandals. Gibney’s access and characteristic rigour culminate in a compelling investigation of the ethics of winning.

A bluegrass musician and his wife learn their young daughter has cancer in Felix van Groeningen’s masterful evocation of the power of music to convey both joy and sadness. "An immaculately observed, desperately moving story of love, loss, and bluegrass music…"—Indiewire.
Winner, Audience Award (Panorama), Berlin 2013; Best Actress, Tribeca 2013.

(Uklad zamkniety)

North American? Premiere

Wed. Oct 2, 3:40 pm, PlayhouseTue. Oct 8, 9:15 pm, Playhouse

Three successful entrepreneurs celebrate their latest factory opening only to find themselves victims of a very hostile takeover and in prison on trumped up charges. A massive hit in Poland, Ryszard Bugajski’s unrelenting thriller reminds us of the brutality that regimes may resort to when they feel their power slipping.

Canadian Premiere

Sun. Oct 6, 1:00 pm, PlayhouseTue. Oct 8, 6:30 pm, Playhouse

Waltz with Bashir’s Ari Folman again pushes the boundaries of animation with this audacious reinvention of Stanislaw Lem’s The Futurological Congress. When Robin Wright (playing herself) consents to being digitally preserved, she’s inadvertently plunged into a dystopian "animation zone." A mind-bending "ode to the wonders of cinematic invention."—Indiewire

(Bella addormentata)

Isabelle Huppert and Toni Servillo (Il Divo) are superb in Italian master Marco Bellocchio’s caustic political critique and keenly observed social drama centring on the hot-button issue of euthanasia. A powerful and supremely intelligent work, showing Bellocchio at the peak of his powers.

Canadian Premiere

The power, intensity and drama of desert ultramarathon racing is impressively conveyed in Jennifer Steinman’s documentary. Following a small group of runners competing in the 4 Deserts (the Atacama, the Gobi, the Sahara and Antarctic) series of races, the film is a compelling look at what motivates these extraordinary competitors.

Director Louise Archambault avoids the obvious traps in this thoughtful telling of the love between Gabrielle, a young woman affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder, and a boy she meets through her choir. With the stirring participation of famous Quebec singer Robert Charlebois, this is a crowd-pleaser with integrity.Winner, Audience Award, Locarno 2013.

(Bagheban)

North American Premiere

Sat. Oct 5, 11:30 am, Intl Village 10Mon. Oct 7, 6:45 pm, Playhouse

Iranian master Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s return to filmmaking is at once radical and celebratory. Shooting, with son Maysam, at Baha’i headquarters in Haifa and Acre, Israel (!), he crafts a colourful, playful and yet deeply intelligent look at the Baha’i faith. "Images and metaphors whimsically combine in a fine, fast-flowing documentary…"—Hollywood Reporter

Director Toa Fraser’s cinematic interpretation of the New Zealand Royal Ballet’s superb, universally lauded production of the great romantic ballet Giselle stars the American Ballet Theater’s Gillian Murphy as the peasant girl with a passion for dance who discovers that the man she loves—played by acclaimed Chinese/New Zealand dancer Qi Huan—is engaged to another…

(La grande bellezza)

Reminiscent of Fellini at his most symphonic, Paolo Sorrentino’s (Il Divo) story of a high-flying journalist (Toni Servillo, superb) brought low by the death of his first love is both visually dazzling and emotionally rich. “Sorrentino’s magnificent return to form… A lush, classical tale of middle-age hedonism and lost love.”—Guardian

In a crisis, should you look back at the past or forward to a better future? Lisa Langseth’s (Pure) haunting drama poses this question when a young woman in mental disarray (Alicia Vikander, A Royal Affair) turns her back on therapy and moves from hotel to hotel with a group of like-minded sufferers, searching for peace of mind…

Canadian Premiere

Tue. Oct 1, 4:00 pm, PlayhouseMon. Oct 7, 9:30 pm, Rio

Cannes 2013’s Steven Spielberg-led jury awarded Best Director to Amat Escalante for this tale ripped from blood-soaked headlines. "New Wave Mexican style: raw, gritty, and force fed… A film about supporting others as you yourself are written out of the picture. A damning indictment of contemporary Mexico, capturing its institutionalised corruption, its endemic cruelty."—Guardian
Winner, Best Director, Cannes 2013.

(Grzeli nateli dgeebi)

North American Premiere

Fri. Sep 27, 1:20 pm, Intl Village 8Wed. Oct 2, 6:30 pm, Playhouse

"Nana Ekvtimishvili [with Simon Gross] marks her filmmaking debut in an impressive coming-of-age feature about female friendship, fatal feuds and family friction in post-Soviet Georgia… With superb performances and high technical polish… In Bloom has the texture of authentic experience."—Hollywood Reporter

(Kids Return Saikai no Toki)

World Premiere

Wed. Oct 2, 9:00 pm, PlayhouseFri. Oct 4, 11:10 am, Intl Village 10

Remember high-school drop-outs Masaru (the yakuza) and Shinji (the boxer) in Kitano Takeshi’s 1996 film? Here’s what happened next, as imagined by Kitano and directed by his former assistant Shimizu Hiroshi. The key issue—how to succeed?—is played out vividly by an excellent young cast.

(Lebanon Gamjeong)

South Korea | Director: Jung Youngheon

North American Premiere

Tue. Oct 1, 9:15 pm, PlayhouseWed. Oct 2, 1:00 pm, Playhouse

A young man grieving over a family death finds himself nursing an injured woman—who has a vicious gangster on her trail. The poetic title refers to unspoken feelings, which run rife in a violent tale of hatred and revenge. It won the Best Director prize at the Moscow Festival for Jung Youngheon, who also scripted.

(Soshite Chichi ni Naru)

Koreeda Hirokazu’s prizewinner asks: what if two male babies were accidentally switched at birth and, six years later, the parents decided to restore the boys to their "rightful" homes? The conundrum is a clever pretext for a study of differences in class, temperament and the ability to love.
Winner, Jury Prize, Cannes 2013.

(Sin Segae)

North American Premiere

Tue. Oct 1, 1:00 pm, PlayhouseThu. Oct 3, 9:10 pm, Playhouse

Park Hoonjung conflates The Godfather and the Infernal Affairs trilogy in this massively entertaining gangster thriller with three powerhouse star performances. Jasung stands to take over the Goldmoon crime syndicate, but he’s actually a police mole… and his sworn brother/rival suspects him.

(Svećenikova djeca)

Alarmed by his parishioners’ fondness for birth control, an over-enthusiastic young priest sets about sabotaging the condom stocks in his tiny island diocese. As birthrates spike, the laughs follow suit in Vinko Brešan’s charming testament to the fact that sex and religion make fine comedic bedfellows. "Colourful, fun and breezy…"—Screen

Whatever happened to the values of cooperation and support that were instilled in Britain during WWII? This rare documentary from Ken Loach seems like the film he was always meant to make. "Rousing and saddening… [It] works all at once as a lament, a celebration and a wake-up call to modern politicians and voters."—Time Out

Canadian Premiere

Sun. Oct 6, 6:15 pm, PlayhouseFri. Oct 11, 4:15 pm, Centre for Arts

In 2008, 18 climbers from a party of 24 reached the summit of the world’s second-highest mountain, the treacherous K2; 48 hours later 11 were either dead or had simply vanished. What happened? Nick Ryan weaves together found footage, eerie reenactments and interviews with survivors to try and solve this tragic mystery.

Canadian Premiere

Classification: G - No advisory

Tue. Oct 8, 1:30 pm, Centre for ArtsThu. Oct 10, 6:00 pm, Playhouse

The first feature film made entirely within Saudi Arabia, female director Haifaa Al Mansour’s drama follows 10-year-old Wadjda as she asserts her independence and negotiates the realities of growing up a woman in that nation. "One of 2013’s best films so far… a massively endearing tale…"—Guardian.
Winner, Best Film, Dubai 2012; Audience Award, Los Angeles 2013.

When M.S. suddenly robbed filmmaker Jason DaSilva of his ability to walk, the Emily Carr graduate did what came naturally: started making a documentary. This intimate, affecting piece spans seven years and charts both DaSilva’s slow acceptance of his degenerative condition and staunch refusal to relinquish his lust for life.
Winner, Best Canadian Feature, Hot Docs 2013.

(Vous n’avez encore rien vu)

The great Alain Resnais brings together a fantastic cast—Piccoli, Azéma, Arditi, Amalric and others—for a roundelay of theatre and passion in a country house. "Digital technology meets lyrical drama… in this puckishly daring, intricately original work."—New Yorker.
Dedicated to the memory of film critic, professor and VIFF friend Mark Harris.